We are happy to announce the addition of TEN new designs to the LPW design gallery Last season was an extremely busy one in the LilyPad Weddings studios. In fact, we are just now finding the time to photograph and upload our newest designs. Please visit our design gallery for a full viewing, but for now here is a little sneak peak! Watch our 'Real Weddings' Gallery in the coming weeks as we plan to expand that as well.
ChurchA
ChesapeakeA
The Chevy Chase
This past year (who can believe the year is already coming to an end?!), has been totally crazy in the LPW design studio. In the last 10 months alone, we have more then doubled our design offerings. As a result of this crazy rush, our new designs have sadly not yet made their debut on our website. This can also be the explanation for our extended period of blog silence! We are working around the clock to organize the designs and get them uploaded for your viewing pleasure. For now, here's a little taste of what's to come. Have a great weekend!
We just wanted to check in and apologize for our recent silence on the blog - with wedding season in full swing, we have been working hard on invitations and day-of wedding stationery, and have not had as much time as we would have liked to blog. Fear not! We'll be back when things calm down a bit with lots to share, including several of our new designs.
Thanks for your patience, and we hope you are enjoying your summer and staying cool!
- Jen and Kristin
Today we are excited to share with you a recent interview on stationery and invitation trends for 2011 we did with West Belmont Place for their Bits of Bliss blog. West Belmont Place is part of the National Conference Center out in Leesburg, Virginia and offers a range of venues and settings for weddings. They have especially great options for accommodating large groups and are located in the beautiful rolling countryside of Loudoun County. Thanks so much for the fun opportunity to chat, Sarah! You can find our interview here.
Skylar Hill Confections
Yesterday we drew the lucky winner of our first ever giveaway, and we'd like to congratulate our winner, Tracy Leaman of Events to a T! Thanks to everyone who entered, as well as to our generous friends at Skylar Hill Confections who made the contest possible. Check out their tasty treats here and have a great weekend!
We received the most amazing gift when we woke up this morning to find that LilyPad Weddings was featured on the blog of one of our all-time favorite photographers, Michelle Lindsay Photography. So if you're looking for something fun to do as you await the wedding of the century (Wills and Kate, of course!), please stop on over and check it out. Thank you, Michelle!!
When we were first introduced to Skylar Hill Confections by our friends at Betsey in Middleburg, it was love at first sight! Delicate works of edible art, these tuile cookies are as tasty as they are beautiful. We love the endless array of colors and patterns, and think they make perfect wedding favors - especially since they can be customized to match any color palette and they do double duty by enhancing the reception decor. I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with the owner of Skylar Hill Confections, Wendy Pepper, to discuss her experience as a finalist on Project Runway, her career transition to master cookie chef, and her inspirations. Check out what she had to say below, and then enter our drawing for a chance to win your own box of cookie goodness by liking the Skylar Hill page on Facebook and posting a comment noting that you are entering the LilyPad Weddings drawing. One lucky winner will be selected on April 28th. You can also get a taste of these masterpieces by stopping by Market Salamander in Middleburg this Saturday, April 16th, from 12 - 2 pm. Oh, and one piece of advice, do not leave your box unattended as a certain family member or friend might just decide to finish them all while you are out running an errand (you know who you are)!
Skylar Hill Confections
Skylar Hill Confections
Before you became a master cookie chef, you were a finalist on Season 1 of Project Runway! What was your favorite challenge and why?
Winning the Banana Republic dress competition really gave me a boost of confidence. Up until then I hadn't found my stride and I needed that vote of confidence to propel me through the tough weeks ahead. AND I absolutely LOVED the dress I designed!
What aspect of the contestant experience did you find most surprising?
I was amazed at the stamina reserves I found I had when the stakes got very high towards the end. I was in the company of some very talented people and even though they obviously drove me crazy at times (the camera caught that for all to see!), I was still flattered to be in the running by the end.
How/why did you decide to start Skylar Hill Confections?
I love to explore the role of color in our daily lives and I love to bake - Voila! - Skylar Hill Confections is my own personal culinary sculpture garden I can invite all my friends to share with me any time.
From where do you draw your inspirations for your flavors?
I tried to think of all the moods I get into when I'm craving a little delicacy throughout the day and at different times of the year. For now, I'm getting a lot of "assorted citrus" orders because the colors and the tastes are so evocative of the arrival of spring. Towards the fall I will expect more interest in the liquors.
What inspires your color palette and different decorative styles?
I love vibrant color - in my fashion design and on my dessert plate! The motifs I use in the production of my tuiles stem from my long interest in graphic design influences from china patterns to tapestry design.
What is the best part of being an artisan tuile chef?
Everyone loves cookies - therefore everyone loves me now!
The toughest part?
Mid-Atlantic humidity + meringue cookie recipe = accelerated hair loss!
What is your favorite flavor?
Key Lime alone, or with anything. It's tart and fresh and green is my favorite color.
Describe your ideal wedding.
My ideal wedding consists of happy people gathered together to celebrate the joy and wonder of true love. 2 People to 1000, the sentiments are the key and it has been my honor to participate both as a dress designer and now chef in helping to express the unique style and spirit of the bride and groom.
Is there anything else you would like our readers to know?
We are proud to offer sugar-free and gluten-free versions of our cookies.
Skylar Hill Confections
Skylar Hill Confections
All photos courtesy of Skylar Hill Confections
Thanks, Wendy! Don't forget to enter our drawing for a chance to win your own box of cookie goodness by liking the Skylar Hill page on Facebook and posting a comment noting that you are entering the LilyPad Weddings drawing. One lucky winner will be selected on April 28th.
While I am happy to have an excuse to wear my super cute new plaid rain boots from Betsey, I am generally not otherwise excited about this morning's dismal grey weather. Our first daffodil has finally burst into bloom, and that is currently the only spot of real color around here. So, to help remedy the situation, we thought it would be fun to bring you one more dose of Caribbean color, courtesy of the talented Rebecca Enslein of The Studio B Photography in Atlanta, Georgia. Rebecca traveled to Eleuthera, Bahamas to shoot Chris and Vanessa's gorgeous destination wedding last spring, and we are loving the coral and turquoise color palette.
To see more of this beautiful beach wedding, including a Friday night fish fry with the locals, check out The Studio B's blog post. Thanks so much for sharing, Rebecca!
Vanessa + Chris
Vanessa + Chris
Vanessa + Chris
Vanessa + Chris
Vanessa + Chris
Vanessa + Chris
Photo credits: The Studio B Photography
Team LilyPad
The Finish
Photos via herecomestheguide
Join us this Sunday, March 13th, from 10 AM to 4 PM at Brides on the Bus, a fun-filled tour of the five beautiful and unique wedding venues offered by the Montgomery County Parks. Participants will be chauffeured in style on luxury buses, and each venue will be set up for a ceremony and reception. Meet a variety of vendors at each stop and sample food while getting information on music, photography, event planning, invitations, hair and makeup, and other wedding services. In between stops, there will be games and prizes on the bus.
We will be located at the Lodge at Little Seneca Creek, a gorgeous log cabin with cathedral ceilings and a cozy stone fireplace that is surrounded by 26 acres of lush woods, calm waters, and the rolling hills of Little Seneca Creek. Please stop by our table to say hi and to check out our latest invitation designs. Don't forget to visit two of our other favorite vendors who will also be there - Events to a T and Danielle Cover Photography.
Tickets are only $10, and there are just a few left! To register, click here. Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!
This morning's snow and ice have left us longing for warm and sunny days, so we decided it would be fun to bring you a small dose of the tropics courtesy of the talented Rebecca Enslein of The Studio B Photography in Atlanta, Georgia. Rebecca traveled to Nassau, Bahamas to shoot Shannon and Jesse's beautiful beach wedding last spring, and today we're thrilled to share a few of her favorite images with you. How gorgeous is that turquoise water??
To see more of this festive affair, check out The Studio B's blog post. Thanks so much for stopping by, Rebecca!
Shannon + Jesse
Shannon + Jesse
Shannon + Jesse
Shannon + Jesse
Adams Morgan
Shannon + Jesse
Photo credits: The Studio B Photography
This Saturday, we had our first wedding in charming Alexandria, Virginia. Kari and Derek were married at Aldersgate Methodist Church with a super modern and elegant reception to follow at Hotel Monaco (love those Kimpton hotels!). Kari and Derek chose our Round Rock as the inspiration for their invitation suite and day-of wedding stationery, and we carried elements of the design throughout their invitations, programs, table numbers, menu cards, and seating chart. We customized the colors to reflect their color palette of red and grey, and designed a new monogram. Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Sorensen! We loved working with you!
Kari + Derek
Photo Credit: Michelle Lindsay Photography
Now that the 2011 wedding invitation season is well underway, it has been fun witnessing the evolution of this year's trends. At the top of our list? Grey as the new neutral. We've previously paired it with red, pale blue, and cream, but this bright and sunny yellow is our new favorite. So, without further ado, we present our newest design, the Rockville. Preppy pinstripes, fun florals, and lots of thoughtful and unexpected details- what's not to love? To learn more about the Rockville, click here.
The Rockville
The Rockville
The Rockville
Yesterday's sunny weather and warm temps gave us our first brief taste of spring, and today we make that feeling last just a bit longer with the breath of fresh air that is Michelle Lindsay Photography. Here at LilyPad, we have been huge fans of Michelle's artistic and editorial style for a long time, so you can imagine our delight when we decided to give our website a facelift with some new images and Michelle was available for the project. We were thrilled the results and couldn't wait to share some of our favorite photos with you! Michelle's work has been featured in Washingtonian Bride & Groom, The Knot, Brides Washington DC, and Get Married, as well as on one of our favorite local wedding blogs, United with Love. She was also recently selected by the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) as one of the top 10 up and coming studios in the U.S!
Her fresh, modern, and vibrant photos speak for themselves, and on top of that, she is one of the most humble and laid-back people we've met.
Thank you, Michelle!
Be sure to check out our Invitation Gallery for more fresh air and a dose of design inspiration.
Georgetown
Vail
Leesburg
Round Rock
Adams Morgan
Massawippi
Today we're back with the second part of our post on Meredith and Jake's wedding, and while we were excited to reveal the design for their invitations in our first post, we're even more excited to share these stunning images of the day as captured by the talented Danielle Cover Photography! This also marks the debut of our new Real Weddings gallery, where we will be bringing you creative details from real LilyPad weddings to help inspire and delight. Meredith and Jake wanted their wedding to feel like a winter wonderland, so we created an intricate and lacy pattern of snowflakes in all different shades of icy blue that we carried throughout their custom invitations, table signs, place cards, and programs. They met at their church and share a strong religious faith, so rather than using conventional table numbers, they decided to seat their guests at tables named after the various virtues and qualities that they hope to carry into their marriage.
We were so inspired by the Meredith and Jake's love story, and by our first (but not last) experience with Wish Upon A Wedding! For more images from their big day and a list of the people who made it happen, please visit their wedding gallery. Happy married life, Mr. and Mrs. Peterson, and we wish Jake a safe deployment and a speedy return!
Meredith + Jake
RoundRock
Meredith + Jake
RoundRock
Meredith + Jake
RoundRock
BCA
We have been big fans of Wedding Wire for awhile now- more specifically, ever since we discovered it while planning our own weddings and found it to be a great resource as we sifted through the sea of seemingly endless options. We love Wedding Wire's unbiased reviews of all different types of wedding vendors, and it always makes our day when we see that one of our clients has taken the time to write a review of LilyPad's custom wedding invitations. You can imagine our delight when we were notified last week that we had been selected to receive a Bride's Choice Award for 2011. We are so honored to be in the company of the many other talented wedding professionals who received this award, and are so grateful to our fabulous couples for helping us get there!
Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.
LilyPad Weddings stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.
“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud LilyPad Weddings for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”
We are happy to announce that LilyPad Weddings is among the very best wedding invitation studios within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.
Meredith + Jake
Those of you who have been following our Twitter and Facebook feeds will know that we have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Saturday, January 8th, for several weeks now. This was the day when our first couple of 2011, Meredith and Jake, got to stand in front of their closest family and friends and declare their love for one another beneath the beautiful dome of the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel. We always get a bit giddy whenever a client's wedding date rolls around, but this day was particularly special as it marked both the start of an exciting journey together for Meredith and Jake, as well as the close of a successful first chapter in our new relationship with the DC Chapter of Wish Upon A Wedding.
Wish Upon A Wedding is a national non-profit organization that provides weddings and vow renewals to couples facing terminal illness or other difficult life-altering circumstances, regardless of sexual orientation. Often, couples in these situations do not have the energy, time, money, or resources to plan a wedding, so Wish Upon a Wedding gathers a network of "wish granter" vendors who donate their time and materials to transform the couple's wedding wishes into reality. We were thrilled and honored when we were notified in November that LilyPad Weddings had been selected to design and provide the invitations and wedding stationery for Meredith and Jake, and being a part of the team that pulled this wedding together in less than 6 weeks was an exhilarating experience.
We have lots more details from the big day we can't wait to share soon, including more of Meredith and Jake's story and stunning images from the talented Danielle Cover Photography, but for now we will leave you with a sneak peek at Meredith and Jake's invitation design as well as our thanks to Wish Upon A Wedding for letting us be a part of this incredible experience!
Team LilyPad
The Finish
With the holiday card crunch behind us, we thought we would take a moment to catch up on our blogging and to share one of our favorite memories from this fall - our participation in the LIVESTRONG Challenge in Austin. Members of Team LilyPad each completed the 45-mile bike ride through the Texas hill country, raising a total of more than $3,000 to help in the fight against cancer!
The adventure began when we woke up at 4:45 AM to drive to the start of the race in Dripping Springs, Texas. We quickly learned that the Texas hill country had earned its name for good reason, as we biked the first grueling 20 miles of the course uphill and into the wind with a cumulative elevation change of 1411 feet! The landscape was beautiful, though, and we cycled past several large ranches, colorful wild flowers, plenty of longhorn cattle, and other uniquely Texan vistas.
Jen and Kristin had never biked more than 20 miles prior to the start, and making it to the end was a feat! We were so inspired by the courage shown by those who have battled this disease, as well as by those who are close to them. Many many thanks to our generous supporters, and we're already looking forward to tackling the 65-mile course in 2011!
Snowflake
We're back to introduce our newest holiday design - Peace Doves ! This card captures the spirit of the season in a festive and fresh color palette.
Wishing you a calm and happy holiday season (and a glass of good hot cocoa to cut the winter chill)!
This is a hectic time in the LilyPad workshop as we fill holiday orders and continue to work on wedding invitations, but we wanted to take a moment to introduce our newest design in the 2010 Holiday Collection - the Snowflake - which has arrived just in time for this chilly Washington weather! Writing a holiday newsletter this year? We can print it directly on the back of your card to save paper.
Stay warm and check back tomorrow for another new design!
RoundRock_Detail1
RoundRock
The Round Rock was designed for a wedding in October. We loved how it turned out and are eager for the bride to see the finished product.